This Motorized Vehicle Runs on… Air?

Is a machine alive if it lives on compressed air? No, but a breathing motorcycle could significantly reduce emissions in developing nations like India. The concept is simple: A tank introduces compressed air into a turbine, where the air expands and thus turns the engine. As LiveScience reports, the engine "could be available to consumers within a year, said Bharat Raj Singh, a researcher at the SMS Institute of Technology in Lucknow, India and one of the developers of the engine. A prototype, modeled in a paper published in May in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, is capable of running a motorcycle at speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph) for 30 minutes."

In a country like India, where many people use small motorbikes, it could be the kind of environmental boon you are always reading about on the internet. (Wait…)